Do HPV vaccines prevent cancer?

It’s unreasonable to expect us to point to one specific case of prevented cancer, since we can’t point to someone without cancer and say, “That person doesn’t have cancer because of the vaccine.” However, data can help us determine if the vaccine is preventing cancers.

At least 6 types of HPV can cause cancer. Cervical cancer is the most common, but other cancers include vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, mouth, and throat cancers. Each year, about 13,800 new cases of invasive cervical cancer are diagnosed, and about 4,290 women die from cervical cancer. Almost all of those cases are due to HPV.

HPV vaccines have been developed to prevent HPV infection and, by extension, cervical cancer. While clinical trials demonstrated the vaccines’ effectiveness in preventing HPV infections and precancerous lesions, it takes time to determine if they actually reduce the incidence of cervical cancer.

And here is a determination! This Swedish study analyzed data from nearly 1.7 million women over an 11-year period from 2006 to 2017. The study found that girls vaccinated with the HPV vaccine before the age of 17 experienced an approximately 90% reduction in cervical cancer incidence compared to unvaccinated women.